It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Today we put our Christmas things up. We ate lunch that included Christmas biscuits (to get us in the Christmas mood)and then got to work! The boys were all big helps this year. They helped put the limbs on and helped with the ornaments. When we finished with our big tree we put up little trees in their rooms. It's such a fun time! Chad always strings lights around the boys room which they love. Here are a few pictures of the boys helping with the tree.
The biscuits..Cade and Chance cut some out and then decided they wanted to put the branches on the tree. So they left me to cook and started on the tree!

Cooper really got into it this year!



The boys did a great job.

The tree is finished!

Five Senses Fair

Yesterday I was able to spend the morning at Cade's school helping with the Kindergarten "Five Senses" Fair. I was in charge of the sense of smell station. Each class came in and spent about 30 minutes. They rotated every 5 minutes or so and were able to explore each of the 5 senses with hands on activities. They really enjoyed it and were all so well behaved. I enjoyed being able to be there for a few hours to help.
Here is a picture of 4 of the 5 stations. At my station the kids got to smell some different scents and try to guess what they were smelling. Some of their guesses were funny! I of course had to have a craft for the kids to take with them (I love crafts). We made flowers with the center being a smelly good pom pom! The kids liked them. You can probably tell by the pictures what kinds of things they got to do. Cade has decided that he now likes pickles because he tried them at the taste station. He has never wanted to eat pickles. he asked if I could get some and put them in his lunchbox for school! I may just do that.
Here he is with a couple of his classmates at the "hear" station! As you can imagine it got pretty loud when they were playing with the instruments! I bet they're not told to make noise very often at school. This was one time when making noise was encouraged! It was a fun morning!

Thanksgiving Feast

Friday Chance had his Thanksgiving program and feast for preschool. The kids did a great job during the program. They acted out the book "A Turkey for Thanksgiving". Chance was a rabbit for the play. After the play and a slideshow we all ate a massive feast with everything you could possibly imagine...and MORE!


My little rabbit who was very ready to take his costume off!


Chance (with his chocolate smile) and his friend Cecily. Look at their eyes!! Beautiful!


Chance's table decorations for the feast!

A great night!

Last night was a great night! It started out with us having a class get together with several friends from our Young Professionals class at church. We have a great group of people in that class. We try to get together once a month and have done a pretty good job of keeping that up over the years. It's hard to get everyone together at the same time but we do the best we can. We missed several people last night but still had a great time with the group that was able to come. We ate great food and had so much fun hanging out. They also played Dirty Santa Bingo which I missed because I left the gathering early. Chad and the boys stayed until nearly 9:00 and had a great time playing. Cade was so excited to get to open presents. I had to explain to him that it wasn't going to be presents that he would really like. It was just a fun game for the "big kids"! I think he actually ended up with something he liked!! So back to the reason I left the party early! At 9:00 last night I was standing in the movie theater parking lot with my sister Amanda and my niece Sarah (and her friend Megan) waiting to get in to see New Moon!!!


The crowd was crazy! The theater was also showing Blindside and I believe was sold out like New Moon! Most people already had their tickets but wanted to get in and get good seats...that's why we were there 45 minutes early! It kind of felt like waiting in line the day after Thanksgiving to be the first one to get that item that everyone is after! We did get good seats and were all able to sit together. The movie was GREAT!!! I want to see it again. I stayed the night at Amanda's and got up this morning and went a few places with Chelsea, Sarah, and Amanda before heading home. It was lots of fun. Chad and the boys managed just fine here without me. We went to the park this afternoon when I got home and had a good time.


And here is what my guys brought home after playing Dirty Santa Bingo! Pretty Gross and it's edible which makes it even more gross! Exactly what a bunch of boys would like! I think these were found in the discount pile after Halloween. A pretty good Dirty Santa gift I thougt.

She smiled at me!

We have been watching some home videos tonight of the past year. One part of the video was Chad's mom's graduation (with her Masters). Chad was there videoing the ceremony. The boys and I were not there. When Chad's mom walked in with the line of graduates she looked at the camera which Chad was holding and smiled. To us watching it on TV it looked like she smiled right at us. Cade sitting on the couch said, "Rah Rah saw me!" We said, you think she saw you?". He said, "Well, she smiled at me!" Funny!

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Here are our finished cookies!

Found this idea at FamilyFun.com. This is one of my favorite sites for crafty food ideas.

Little Stinker

I've been making pilgrim hat cookies tonight for Chance's preschool program and for Cade to take to school for snack. I'll post a picture when I'm done with them. Chance and Cooper (Cade's at a school thing with Chad) were eating supper and I told them when they ate their food they could have a marshmallow (part of the hats). Chance finished his food and ate a marshmallow and even helped some with making the cookies. Cooper quietly got down from the table and snagged a marshmallow off of the counter. I said, "No sir! You have not eaten your food, you can not have a marshmallow yet!!" So what does Cooper do?? He shoves it in his mouth and takes off running! What a stinker! I did take off after him and make him spit it out !! I know, how mean!! The child would only eat junk if I would let him. Just thought it was so funny that he shoved it in and ran like I would really be okay with that! Silly boy.

Basketball goals......

are not only for shooting basketball!!


SEE!!!!

I was actually very impressed that Cooper was able to get them all hanging without them falling off. Boys!

Little Women!

Last night I went to see the musical "Little Women" at Freed. Chad's mom got me 2 tickets to go. She had to be out of town so I called up my sister Amanda to see if she wanted to go with me, She did!! She came over early and we (Chad and the boys too) went to eat before the show. We enjoyed the show although it was a little depressing. I nearly cried several times. I love spending time with my sister and just don't get to do it as much as I would like. I'm glad she was able to drive over for the evening. The boys had a great time while I was away. Anytime I go out and do something without them they have what they call "BOYS CLUB" here at the house. I never know what I'm going to come home to but I know they've always had a great time! Last night I came home to a CLEAN house full of sleeping boys (Chad included)! Chad is such a good husband and daddy!

One of our favorites...

We've had this book for quite some time now and all of my boys have loved it. For the past few weeks it has been a favorite of Coopers. We read it daily....most days we read it numerous times!! Cooper can almost read it to me he's heard it so many times. Each pages introduces a new bible person. We like to read it and sing songs and go over questions that relate to each bible character as we get to them. If you're looking for a gift idea for someone very small this year for Christmas this book would make a great one!


Synopsis (posted on most every site along with this book)
Bill Martin Jr. is the beloved author whose books have sold more than 12 million copies, including the classics Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?; Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom; and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?
His classic book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? is read by millions of children around the world. Now, best-selling author Bill Martin Jr. has teamed with Michael Sampson to introduce your kids to the great heroes of the Bible.

Fun with Leaves!

This week has been absolutely gorgeous. The leaves are falling more and more. The kids and I raked leaves (I did most of the raking) nearly everyday and played. It takes a lot of raking to keep leaf piles big enough for several kids to jump in over and over. My arms got a good workout this week. We will most likely be mowing over the leaves this weekend so I'm not sure we'll have enough leaves left for much of a pile. I'm glad we got to enjoy them this week. Chad's mom has TONS of leaves around her house at this time of year (she has several really big trees) so we'll have to make plans to play in hers soon. Here are a few pictures of the boys in the leaves and a couple pictures of some of our leaf creations.